Questions without answers: MH17 crash became a game for hundreds of human lives

Less than a month is left until the fifth anniversary of the plane crash in the sky over the Donbass. MH17 flight, en-route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, carried 298 people, including crew members, but after almost 3 hours from takeoff, they died as a result of a rocket attack, and the crash became one of the largest since the beginning of the 20th century.

Unfortunately, this tragedy, which occurred at the height of the new cold war between the Western bloc and Russia, became a pretext for mass speculation in the political arena, while the perpetrators were never punished.

In the course of five years, the disaster has been overwhelmed with rumors, conjectures and assumptions. But the facts are much more complicated, because even the “hot pursuit” created by the Joint Investigation Team, where despite the name, Russian experts are not allowed, is manipulated by dubious arguments, for each of which Moscow easily finds weighty counterarguments. Take the carefully prepared report from the Russian Ministry of Defense, promulgated in September last year.

We must pay tribute to the Moscow experts. Their western colleagues have much to learn. Back then Russia submitted documentation, which testified that the missile fired at airliner was sent to the military unit 20152 in the Lviv region thirty years ago, and after the collapse of the Soviet Union it became the property of the Ukrainian military.

It is noteworthy that the evidence of Moscow was entirely based on the developments that were gathered by experts from the Joint Investigation Team, including photographs of fragments of ammunition, which until then were used just to charge Russia. Actually, here is a photo of a fragment of a nozzle with the designation of serial numbers submitted by the Netherlands:

And here is the passport to the nozzle unit 9D131 05 000 No. 830113 and the 9D131 rocket engine form with serial number 8869032:

How reliable are the arguments of Moscow? The answer lies in the fact that for a long time the disaster was not remembered literally until the Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad did this.

“They [the Netherlands] blame Russia, but where is the evidence?” We know that the rocket that hit the plane was of the Russian type, but it could also have been made in Ukraine, he said. “It seems that [the idea] was concentrating on trying to put the blame on the Russians.”

What is important in his statement? That he allegedly stood up for Moscow? Not at all. It’s just that Malaysia understands that the investigation which has been dragging on for years does not produce results. The criminals were not punished. And if the missile really belonged to Russia, it would not be difficult to prove it. All speculations, loud statements and whole media campaigns could be put aside and point to the culprit. How?

First of all, it is no secret to anyone that the crash site was in the zone of operation of one of the American military satellites. To fix the trajectory of the rocket and even the exact location of the launcher would not be difficult for the modern US technology. Washington would have long been able to provide the public with data on whether the missile was launched from the territory uncontrolled by Ukraine or, nevertheless, it was launched by the Ukrainian troops. The question would be closed once and for all, and the guilty were punished. But, what do we see? Rather, what we do not see? We do not see the same data from the satellite, which means they differ from the official version of the international expert group. No need to be a genius to come to this conclusion.

There is, or rather, the expert group should have one more data that can lift the veil of secrecy and prove the accusation against Russia. Speech on the radar data of the Ukrainian side. This, of course, is not an American satellite, but would also be an indisputable proof. At the moment, it is known that at the time of the disaster, two radar stations operated in the region: the Mariupol radar station of the state enterprise of the Ukraeroruk air traffic service, and the Kupol radar station near the city of Kramatorsk. It is noteworthy that this particular station is used as a target designation system for the Buk anti-aircraft missile system, which became the cause of the disaster.

Finally, last fall, an audio recording of the talks between the Ukrainian servicemen was made public, one of whom actually admitted that the AFU were behind the crash. “We are closing the airspace. We must explain that we have this. <…> This «Malachite» may not work. <…> Take this manager Levchuk and say: “Guys, if it will be like this, then we will strike with great force one more Malaysian Boeing” -you can hear it on audio.

The recording was made in the Odessa region before the exercises «Frontier» in 2016. The voice belonged to the colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ruslan Grinchak, who in 2014 headed the 164th radio engineering brigade present in the Donbass. What was the reaction of the investigators to this record? There was no reaction at all! That is, based on logic, at least the military should have been interrogated. However, we see only frank disregard of the clues that can put an end to this matter.

Returning to the report of Moscow, which, by the way, was also left without a reaction, even a negative one, we can conclude: Russia laid out the cards on the table. It has nothing more to add. The next move goes for investigators in the Netherlands, for the entire Western community, but they are still trying to build a stone face there, pressing their own cards to their chests. It seems that they are not as good as they seemed, and the bluff did not bring the desired results.